Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

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PLV: Plenarvorträge

PLV XI

PLV XI: Plenary Talk

Thursday, March 15, 2018, 08:30–09:15, H 0105

Emergent properties and functions of topological magnets — •Yoshinori Tokura — RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, Japan — Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo, Japan

Magnetism meets topology. The topology of spin texture either in momentum space and real space can generate emergent electromagnetic fields acting on the conduction and valence electrons in solid, produce intriguing properties and responses. One archetypical example is a magnetic skyrmion, a spin swirling object with integer winding number. Its topology protects the skyrmion from external perturbation, forming a robust metastable state. Skyrmions and accompanied magnetic monopoles provide a fertile research field not only for topology physics but also for new spintronic functions.

One other important example of topological magnets is magnetic topological insulators, in which the spin-momentum locking as well as the magnetization-induced mass-gap shows up to form the ideal 2D Weyl fermion system at surface. With control of the magnetizations on the top and bottom surfaces, quantum anomalous Hall state and quantum magnetoelectric (axion insulator) state can be formed. Therein, the topological magneto-optical effects also show up and the quantized chiral edge conduction is realized on the reconfigurable magnetic domain walls.

These momentum-space or real-space topological spin textures are overviewed with perspectives of exploration for new quantum materials and functions.